Best Friends Forever (good ending)
by Zilkenian
Summary: Wouldn't you do anything for a best friend? I would...Even if it kills me...


**While looking through my fanfics I realized that the one called "Best friends forever" could have had a better ending, so this is the "good ending" of that story. Hope you enjoy it.**

...

It had been a very busy day between explosions, gunshots, killing people...the usual stuff. Sniper was outside, sitting on a garden chair next to his van, minding his own business while looking at the sunset. At that time the whole team was celebrating victory, or alcohol, who cared; the only thing Sniper had in mind is to have some quality time with his own self, away from other human beings. Although he enjoyed company, it was only for short periods of time; he was a solitaire man and he enjoyed his life that way. You didn't have to feel bad for someone else if you didn't know anyone. Loneliness could come handy in that matter.

However, most of his time alone was spent in thinking about his parents. Sniper was a very loyal man towards family, and he always made sure he wrote at least one letter a week to tell them how things were doing, aside for the daily calls. In a way, even if his father drove him mad most of the time and his mother was overprotective towards him, he missed them. He could be all adult he wanted, but for family he still was a little kid. Sniper sighed, as the sun was setting to let the night take its place. Little by little stars appeared in the sky as the daylight ceased to exist for the rest of the day, and Sniper looked up to welcome them, while the breeze relaxed his very core. It was true in that place nights were cold, but the moment where day and night met, the temperature was perfect.

Still, of course someone had to come by once the night fell. Sniper knew the man would come around at that time, only to ask the usual: if he was alright, how was everything going, etc. He didn't mind the presence of that man at all, in fact, it was the opposite: he enjoyed the time he spent with him. The moment he heard the footsteps behind him, Sniper stood up from his chair and looked back at the shorter man. He then saw the beer bottles and the blankets.

"Hey there stretch, how you doing?"

Engineer was the only man Sniper allowed to get close while ceasefire, the rest would always get the silent treatment or the usual "Piss off!"; it depended on how much respect they had earned from him. But Engie was a man too nice to yell or give a silent treatment, and with time, the newest member got what nobody else could: Sniper's trust. The shorter man came closer, giving Sniper a blanket and a beer, and sat on the chair Sniper already prepared for him next to the other one. Covered and with a drink, sitting and watching the stars, they both sighed calmly.

"I'm okay, thanks truckie"

Engie smiled at him. For some reason, Sniper got used to call him by that nickname, and albeit that wasn't his real name, being called by something else rather than "Engineer" was quite nice. He was the newest member of the team, but he wasn't new in all TF Industries, no, he had spent time with other teams, and he usually got everyone on his side with his nice-going man treatment, but in this team, after he found that Sniper was more like an outcast rather than a team mate, it called his attention. Maybe because the man was solitaire, maybe because he always wanted a well formed team with everyone getting alone, or maybe because he was a dreamer, he gravitated towards that tall, silent man.

At first it had been hard: the man wouldn't answer him, or would just growl in response. But with time and patience, he started to learn his antics: he wasn't rude, he just wanted to be left alone, but Engie knew better: no man can stay alone forever. And by all his luck, the night he decided to go and talk to him was the night he got a bad conversation with his parents from the phone. Engie was familiar with family problems, not because of himself, but because he knew a lot of people with troubles like that one, so he was able to calm Sniper down and give him some advice. And for some reason, that worked a miracle, because from that day onwards Sniper would always welcome him on the sunset and they would spent quality time by either chatting or just staring at the landscape in silence. And truth to be told, Engie loved that.

So they spend that night talking about trivialities, specially about how annoying Scout was (of course Engie would try to convince Sniper that the kid wasn't that bad, but even he had a hard time believing it). The whole thing would continue until 10 PM, when Sniper would yawn and say his goodnight, while Engie would collect all things and go back inside the base. Once inside the base, he would put every object in it's proper place, and go to sleep, waiting for the next reunion.

Who would say that the next reunion would be so special.

The next day the battle was going all fine, with Respawn having its way with the deceased team mates; the usual stuff. Engie was in his nest, trying to hold the BLUs from getting onto the last point, with his level three sentry ready for anything. He had killed the BLU Spy twice already, and was ready for the man to come around again, when his personal PC alarm went off. He looked at it, concerned something would be wrong, like one of his buildings, or the teleporter on the exit side being attacked, but what he saw made his heart skip a beat.

Respawn was down.

He quickly put a finger in his ear, activating his earpiece to inform the rest.

"Everyone! Quickly, get inside the resupply room! Respawn is down, I repeat, Respawn is DOWN!"

The alarmed voices soon danced around the communication like scared birds, and Engie soon saw his team trying to escape the bullets and explosions. Apparently, only their side of respawn was down; BLU's was still online. He kept his buildings up as much as possible, but had to flee when the enemy Soldier came barreling on him. Lucky him, his sentry proved to be a great adversary and the Soldier got distracted with it while he ran away from his nest, towards the resupply room.

Once inside, he found Medic healing Heavy, Demoman nursing his injured arm and Spy. All of them were looking at nothing, except for the Doc, who was looking at heavy's injury while stealing glances towards Demoman now and then. Engie, on the other hand, was more worried about something, or better said, lack of someone.

"Where is stretch?"

Spy was the only one who looked at him. He blew out some smoke before speaking, with a voice calm, yet with a hint of fear in it.

"I'm afraid in the same place the rest of our team is: hell or heaven"

Before anyone could react, Engie ran out the resupply room towards the last spot where he saw the taller man. While running, he saw the BLUs taking the last point and winning. Engie didn't care, he kept running, looking for Sniper. After a few minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for, but not in the way he expected it. Sniper was lying on the base of the building he used to shot enemies, his stomach full of bullet holes.

Engie saw his world falling down on him, and after a moment of shock, he ran towards Sniper, taking the man in his arms, shaking him in a hope all that was a nightmare and he would wake up soon. But Sniper didn't open his eyes nor answered back his pleas. Engie's mind, usually capable of thinking fast and build anything, was now blank, and the only answer that came to him was to hug the man's body.

And then, hope illuminated his mind.

Pressing his face on the man's neck he felt a weak pulse. In order to verify it, Engie pressed two fingers against the neck and yes, there it was. After a brief moment of shock, his mind came back to the usual processing. Saving Sniper was his higher priority, so he took the man's left arm around his shoulder, while his hand went on Sniper's torso, keeping him in a upright position. It was hard to walk like that, specially with Sniper being taller than him, but that didn't stop Engie from going.

The way back felt longer than the other way around, and Engie himself was very tired for the day's battle and shock of the Respawn failing. But luck turned against him, and he saw the BLU team nearby the RED's resupply room. Apparently, the RED's resupply room was locked to prevent from losing any more RED members, and the BLUs were trying to get an explanation as to why, since they didn't know that Respawn was offline on RED's side. Engie had two options: either try and explain them about what happened, but that would earn him a few bullets before he could even start explaining; or try to hide somwehere else and pray that Sniper would hold until BLU left, but he knew the man wouldn't be able to hold for that long.

So engie took out his gun, and went closer to BLU, pointing at them with the weapon. The whole BLU team's eyes fell on Sniper and him.

"Step aside"

The order was clear, and it made the enemy team feel shocked for a second, before turning into their usual annoying selves. Of course, the insults would start soon enough, but they fell on deaf ears. Engie kept his gaze and his weapon, and his grip on Sniper's dying form, not moving an inch. Little by little the insults and laughs died down, and they stared at the pair in front of them. Once everyone shut their mouths, Engie started to explain.

"Our Respawn went offline today, so whatever kill you did after that it resulted in a permanent death. Now, I'm not going to let Sniper die, and I don't care if I have to shoot you one by one, or if I die trying it. So...step aside"

BLU looked at each other for a moment, and then back at Engie. He sighed silently a bit, but he wasn't sure if BLU were just deciding on how to kill him or if to kidnap him and get answers. Right when he thought they were going to start shooting at him, one by one BLU stepped aside, each one in one direction, leaving a way in between them towards the RED's resupply. All their faces had a serious expression in them, and Engie could swear there was respect in them. Soldier spoke for all of them.

"Alright maggot, only this time. You got balls to get out of safety to get your companion and comfront an entire, deadly team to save him. You better hurry up before we change our minds"

Engie didn't need to be told twice, and he started to walk again. He never said thanks or anything, it wasn't like he owed the men that injured his friend, but he kept going on anyways towards the RED resupply room. The door opened on its own for him, and once inside he found the same four men. Medic quickly went to him to take Sniper to a safe zone where he could heal him, while the door behind him closed. Engie felt his legs giving up on him and he fell on his knees. Demoman was next to him in a second, his arm already healed, and helped him get on a bench. The rest of the team decided to stay silent, trying to let everything sink in, while Medic worked with his medigun on Sniper.

Later, once everyone was fixed and respawn was put online again, they discovered that a bug got inside the system's circuits, and because of it some of them were damaged to the point of shutting the machine down. Engie soon fixed it, and when he was done he went outside to have some fresh air. The day had been a mess, but lucky them, Respawn files were alright and Scout, Soldier and Pyro respawned after fixing it. But that wasn't his main concern in that moment.

He kept walking towards the van, where he saw the man sitting on a garden chair. His stomach was bandaged, apparently the damage was too much for the medigun to fix it without the Respawn influence on it, so he had to stay off the battle for some time and rest. Engie sat on the chair next to him, giving Sniper a beer and a blanket. The taller man mumbled a thanks before covering himself with the blanket.

"Hey there stretch..."

Sniper looked down, and closed his eyes.

"You could have died out there today saving me, truckie. Why...?"

Engie held a hand, stopping him in his question. He took a sip of his beer.

"Not a word about it, that's what friends are for" Engie looked at him, smiling. For the first time, Engie saw a genuine smile on the other man's face, which included an infinite gratitude "How are you doing?"

Sniper closed his eyes and chuckled, shaking his head a bit. Of course, with Engie everything would go back to normal as soon as possible, forget about the bullet holes healing in his stomach. But maybe that was exactly what he needed on that moment. He looked up at the stars.

"I'm okay, thanks truckie"

Engie smiled, and looked up as well. They stayed longer than night, in each other's company. Not a lot of words were spoken, they just enjoyed the silence of the moment and the lack of any other sounds than nature's. They didn't need any other thing; just each other.

That's what best friend are for.


End file.
